Even if it's not in his body, so long as his soul is intact he'll live
by silverbluebaka
Summary: Title and image are taken from chap 208:Furuichi is dead! Defeat Takamiya, collect the soul, save his friend... but is a soul in 6 pieces still intact? Dark fic, Rated M for language and major character death. (because I re-read 208 yesterday and panicked over the definition of 'intact')
1. Oga

**Author's note: **I re-read Chapter 208: Furuichi is dead?! last night and panicked about the definition of "intact"... this is my worst case scenario. It was supposed to be a one-shot of Oga, with furcas as an epilogue, but it evolved into a 3 chapter. And its 2AM and I am tired and dont have a beta so please forgive any mistakes.

Tamura Ryuuhei owns beelzebub and all characters - i'm just really worried about them.

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The saint group spilled out of Alaindelon, landing in a pile on the stone tiles of the courtyard of the Kunieda's temple home.

Aoi's grandfather, waiting for them on the front stairs, quickly showed them through to the main temple, where most of the group stopped in shock.

Kanzaki, Toujo and Aoi stared up at what seemed to be an 8 foot high luminescent jelly cube, topped by what looked like two eyes. Oga simply continued on into the room, having recognised the blob as one of Lamia's healing muumuus, though on a much larger scale than the ones she usually had. As he drew closer his suspicions about the unusual size were confirmed, as he could see best friend, Furuichi, floating inside it. Topless inside the muumuu, the full severity of his wound was made visible. As Oga looked at his friend, he could see right through his chest... Oga thought the front of the hole might be wide enough for him to pass his fist through, although the hole on his back seemed to have closed up more.

"Oga! Where's the soul?"

Oga quickly turned to look at the little doctor. Lamia had her arms crossed in impatience, but that only drew his attention to her blood soaked coat sleeves, while her angry expression did not cover the fact that her eyes were also red, but from tears instead.

He smiled smugly at her, "I told you I'd do it, didn't I?" he said as he drew out the bag containing the six pieces of his friend's soul. The little demon on his back added his own cheer of triumph, revelling in his parent's joy.

Lamia clutched at the bag beaming, "and there are still hours left until sunrise! I'm not able to close the wounds completely without the heart inside, but Doctor Furcas brought the Imperial muumuu, so we've been able to stop the blood loss, and started to repair some of the tissue damage."

Lamia took the bag and darted to the blue figure of Doctor Furcas, who had just appeared from the far side of the muumuu, where he had been inspecting the wounds on Furuichi's back.

Ignoring Lamia's excitement he took the bag from her, "What is this?" he asked peering into the bag at the fragments of Furuichi.

"It's Furuichi soul," Oga replied frowning, "the pieces of his heart that Takamiya took. We got them all."

Doctor Furcus regarded Oga for a moment before spilling the contents of the bag onto his blobby hand, the six pieces of Furuichi's soul giggling and squealing as he moved them around, inspecting each one closely.

Oga was about to tell him to hurry the fuck up, when the doctor spoke. Still examining the fragments, he directed his question to Oga, "please tell me, exactly, what this spell master told you, if you would."

Oga looked to Lamia who was watching the doctor closely while chewing her lip. "He said that we could save him if we got his soul back before morning," he answered.

Doctor Furcas slipped the soul fragments back into the bag and tied it shut. "Is that all he said?" he asked, holding the bag out towards Oga.

Oga didn't take the bag, just looked back and forth between the doctor, the bag and Lamia, who looked as confused as he felt. "What are you doing? We got his soul back, now hurry up and put it back in him! Help him!"

Doctor Furcas lowered the bag he still held out, and with his other hand, smacked Lamia on the head. While she rubbed the welt, he sighed, and drew her close to him. Blue arm around her shoulder, he looked back to Oga and said "I'm very sorry to tell you, but there is nothing more that I can do. The young man is going to die."

Oga blinked. "The fuck did you say? The sun isn't up yet. Save him."

The doctor didn't respond, too absorbed in watching his apprentice, who knew him better than Oga did, knew that there was very little he couldn't heal, but knew that when he said it was over, there was really no hope left. And she knew that a smack on the head meant she had forgotten something vitally important. Lamia knew all these things, but she still desperately refused to believe them.

The doctor kept one eye on Lamia while he answered Oga. "A soul can survive outside the body until sunrise, so long as it remains -," he began but was interrupted by Oga who was rapidly losing patience with the blue doctor.

"I KNOW THAT ALREADY! SO HURRY UP AND PUT IT BACK IN ALREADY!"

Doctor Furcas regarded the gathering darkness around the demon lord and the contractor warily, before continuing with his explanation. "...So long as it remains intact," raising the bag again he continued before Oga could interrupt again, "but this soul is not intact."

Whatever threats Oga had been about to make froze in his throat at the doctor's words. Somewhere, far away he was aware of Lamia falling to the ground, face buried in her hands, while he stared at the doctor in confusion. He could hear Beel croaking and whimpering in his ear as the baby tried desperately not to cry, and could hear the cries of shock from his three court members.

But all of that seemed far too real to Oga, far too natural reactions to what seemed to him to be the most impossible statement he'd ever heard. "This soul is not intact." How could those words actually exist? There was no way the world couldn't have his friend in it.

Oga clung to that thought and managed to speak. "What are you talking about? Of course it's intact! We collected all six –"

Oga snapped his mouth shut, staring at the bag. If he had been capable of looking at Doctor Furcas then, he would have seen a rare look of pity, but all Oga could manage was to stare at the bag as he felt his arms trembling. Lucifer had divided the soul right in front of him. Into six pieces.

That was the last conscious thought Oga had for a long time. Later, he would hear that Kunieda's grandfather had had to help Toujo and Kanzeki hold him back from returning to the school to find Takamiya and Lucifer, and that Beel had run to Aoi in fear of Oga's screams. But he didn't remember any of that.

He remembered a searing pain in his throat, which might have been from vomit, or maybe from his screams continuing to claw their way out even after he lost his voice. He remembered looking up at his friend floating in the muumuu, and trying to tear him out of it, terrified that the gelatinous creature would try to steal him away.

He remembered his own heart jumping and shrinking inside his chest as it tried to come out to replace the one Furuichi had lost. He remembered wishing it would.


	2. Aoi

**Author's note: **So chapter 1 was me panicking... however i read Beelzebub chap 219 mid-way through writing, so chapter 2 is me relaxing and deciding to punish some characters for not worrying about Furuichi since july. i hope its not awful.

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Hours later, Aoi sat in a doorway nursing Beel and Kouta. Oga's screams had woken her little brother from his sleep, but his presence had seemed to comfort Beel, so she let him stay up. The two boys were now snuggled together in her lap, asleep. One hand on each boy's head, she softly stroked their hair, hoping that they might sleep for a while. Cuddled up with her brother, the little demon looked just like a normal baby.

Holding in a sob, she lifted her head up so the tears she felt coming wouldn't drip onto the sleeping boys. She'd long since given up wiping her tears away.

Aoi looked to her left, where a group of her friends were not doing any better. Much like Aoi herself, Nene was sitting on the floor, with Lamia sleeping with her head pillowed on Nene's lap. The little girl had been inconsolable. Yuka and Chiaki had had to force her to take off her blood stained coat, before Nene carried her to the bath. Yuka had returned to report that the little girl had not stopped crying. Kanzaki walked her home, his arm around her shoulder as Yuka sobbed.

Toujo and Natsume were sitting on the front veranda, looking down the stairs at the courtyard. "Watching out for trouble," they had said, but Aoi thought they just wanted the darkness to hide their tears. If anything, they were probably wishing a fight would come along.

Himekawa had been told to stay very, very far away. No one could really say he was to blame, but at the same time, Aoi thought that everyone blamed him a little. Certainly Oga did, if his earlier screams and curses were anything to go by.

Looking to her right, she saw that her grandfather was serving tea by the back wall of the muumuu room. He, Saotome-sensei and Doctor Furcas had all been in quiet discussion for some time now, but all three kept their eyes directed to the far side of the room. Her grandfather and Saotome-sensei were definitely focused on Oga, but she thought Doctor Furcas was watching the muumuu and Furuichi just as often.

Aoi had heard the three adults discussing 'the body', and wished that she hadn't. The demon doctor had said that despite his soul being destroyed, the muumuu could continue to heal Furuichi's flesh until sunrise. "Close him up for the family," he had said. The three of the them had also discussed how to move 'the body' so that the death wouldn't be traced back to Oga, the Ishiyama students or the demon world; hearing her grandfather's earlier debate on the merits of hospital drop-off vs staged suicide had made her vomit. As she'd run to the toilet she was glad she wouldn't hear the end of the conversation. She was glad Oga hadn't heard any of it.

She looked at him to her far right. She was sitting in the doorway so that Beel could see him, while still leaving him alone with his grief. He was lying very still near the muumuu, just barely visible in the light the glowing mound cast. After his terrifying initial outburst, Doctor Furcas had shot him with a mild tranquiliser and for a while Oga's screams had quietened to sobs. The sound had made Aoi's skin crawl.

His screams had sounded painful, as if he was dying slowly with Furuichi, cut away with every passing minute. But the quiet little sobs had been filled with defeat and despair. The screams had scared Beel, but the sobs had sent Toujo and Kanzeki running from the room. Cradling Beel, Aoi had watched Oga lie hiccupping and moaning on the floor.

The tranquilizer had worn off, but Oga still lay in the same place, looking down at the six soul fragments. Aoi could just make out enough sound to know that someone was speaking, but she couldn't say if it was Oga, the fragments or both. Whatever was being said by whomever, she wasn't supposed to know. As far back as the Saint group was, she still felt like they were intruding.

She looked down at the two boys in her lap. She had often thought that the friendship between Furuichi and Oga had been something precious. Sometimes she had been a little jealous of how close they were. She had hoped Kouta would have a friendship like that, maybe with Beel, maybe with another friend. But if that pain was the price, she would rather her little brother have a dozen distant friends than one true friend.

Lost in thought, Aoi didn't notice the room becoming lighter until Toujo walked past her into the muumuu room, where he knelt to speak to Saotome-sensei.

She and Toujo both watched the two adults and the doctor move towards the far side of the room, Toujo prepared to follow, while she watched for a sign to take the babies away.

Natsume knelt next to her and whispered "it's getting lighter outside." She didn't bother to look back, but slowly stood, trying not to wake the little boys in her arms. They fussed, but the nights events had exhausted them both, and they stayed asleep.

As daylight moved further into the room behind her, Aoi watched Doctor Furcas remove Furuichi – Furuichi's body, she thought – from the giant glowing muumuu, while Saotome-sensei and her grandfather hovered behind Oga. He had leapt up when he saw Doctor Furcas open the muumuu, and stayed frozen on the verge of moving to take Furuichi from him. Every few moments he would dip his head to look at something cradled in his arms – the soul fragments she thought. He was holding them as carefully as she was holding the sleeping boys, and she could just make out his face in their glow.

Doctor Furcas had lowered 'the body' to the floor and was examining the chest wound closely. Aoi noticed her grandfather moving closer to Oga, while Saotome-sensei placed one hand on Oga's shoulder, which was immediately shaken off.

The light behind her was getting stronger, and the glow of the soul fragments was getting brighter; when Oga dipped his head to speak to them, Aoi could make out most of his features. When she heard a bird begin chirping, she silently turned and took the babies back to her room.

She lay them on her bed, then curled herself around them, watching the sun come up through her window. As Aoi pulled a quilt over the three of them, she heard the screams start again.


	3. Doctor Furcas

**Author's note: **Because who doesnt love blue jelly with attitude?

* * *

While Lord Beelzebub IV's contractor clutched the corpse, Doctor Furcas quietly collected the six fragments. As soon as the sun had cleared the horizon, the fragments had ceased to be soul-flesh, and in situations like this, decomposition was accelerated.

Doctor Furcas glanced over to where the contractor sat screaming. Oga had wrapped the body of his friend in his arms and refused to let go. He currently sat rocking both himself and the corpse back and forth, alternating between wordless cries, and fragmented pleading – to his friend, to the gods, or to whoever was listening that had the power to give his friend back. Looking at the dead flesh he was bagging, Doctor Furcas knew Oga would be waiting a very long time for that wish to be granted.

Lord Beelzebub's court watched on from the distance, only the strongest few daring to approach, but them not by much. Furcas had encountered both Kunieda and Saotome during the last war, and as his patient was already dead, decided that the two of them possessed adequate strength to supervise the grieving contractor. He had told them he wouldn't tranquilise the boy a second time – better to have his pain out now than to delay it.

With a tip of his hat to Saotome, and a quick "thank-you for the tea" to Kunieda that was probably missed under Oga's screams ("No, no, please no," it sounded like) Doctor Furcas gathered up his Imperial Muumuu and walked out into the next room where Lamia lay crying in one of the human girl's arms.

"Alaindelon, if you will," Doctor Furcas asked the room, not waiting for the trans-dimensional demon to appear as he moved outside, "Lamia, we are leaving now." The temple was extremely convenient for travel to the netherworld – built on intersecting lay-lines, it made for a very easy crossing, both for the passenger and the transferring demon.

Alaindelon appeared weeping before Lamia was ready to leave. Doctor Furcas waited impatiently as the girl scurried around looking for her belongings and breaking down in tears mid-search over her stained coat. While he waited he checked on the fragments; less than ten minutes since the sun had risen and most of them had deteriorated, the bag slowly filling with dust. He pulled a tongue compressor from his bag, and gave the dust a light stir; hardly anything solid remained. With a quick flick of his blobby wrist he emptied the bag, and watched as the dust hung in the air. The direct exposure to the light increased the already rapid decomposition, the particles breaking down further and further, until finally there was nothing visible left.

Doctor Furcas dusted off his hands. And with that, the thought, his patient was completely dead. Listening to the contractor's screams, he wondered at the foolishness of this new generation of spell masters. Lucifer's contractor had apparently failed to research the affects of division of a soul properly before starting his little war. Ignoring basic principles were the mark of a slopping practitioner, and Doctor Furcas was very cross with his apprentice over her forgetfulness, but given the circumstances, he would forgive her – certainly she would not forget the first laws again.

An intact soul is a living soul - it may be returned to the body before dawn; it can ascend to the afterlife at dawn.

A divided soul is a dead soul - it cannot be returned to the body; it will decompose at dawn, and can not ascend to the afterlife.

Lamia finally appeared on the veranda, with red eyes, and clutching her coat. She had eventually remembered the laws of soul separation after he given Oga the news, but neither of them had corrected the humans who believed the patient's souls was ascending to the afterlife. He hoped they appreciated the lie.

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**Author's footnote:  
**there you have it, my 2AM, worst case scenario. I hope this wasnt too awful, now i'm going to bed before kill off any more of my favourite characters.


End file.
